Technology Had Little Impact on Tobacco Farming

Still done by hand

This hand-powered horizontal "prize" is approximately 30 feet long. It was used to pack bundles of tobacco into wooden hogsheads.

A hand-operated lister fertilizer from the 1930s used to prepare the soil for planting tobacco seedlings. The front wheel makes a furrow; 3-9-15 fertilizer is dropped in, and the discs close the furrow. The wooden board follows behind to flatten the resulting hill.

A wooden cart, also known as a duckbill, used in tobacco warehouses to move bales of tobacco.

James “Junior” Hall with a hand-held trans-planter used to plant tobacco seedlings. The main tube holds the plant while the side tube contains water, which is released by a lever as the plant goes into the ground.

Stalks of tobacco hung on sticks used for drying. Shown behind them are the hand-woven baskets used at the top and bottom of each bale.

A handmade wooden frame was used to hand-pack a 250-pound bale of tobacco. When the frame was full, it was removed and the flat woven baskets at the top and bottom of the bale were tied together in preparation for shipping.